The platform market plays in a difficult position. If before, the dashboard was frequently cheaper, on the contrary, manufacturers often raise prices – and not only trade wars or monetary instability is to be blamed for this. ARS Technica portal speakWhy does the price depend on the chip and the law of Moore.
What is Moore Law
Despite its name, Moore's law is the intersection between Muslims and Muslims' observations. Gordon Moore, the founder of Intel, in 1965, assumed that the number of semiconductor balls placed on the chip will be doubled each year (in 1975, the forecast was expected to be transferred to two years).
Moore's rules are related to the next 40 years, partly due to the improvement of production processes used in creating silicon chips. Intel, AMD, Samsung and TSMC continue to develop new and advanced ways to push more semiconductor balls into the same small physical area.
Periodically, leading managers from the technology industry says Moore's laws are dead. Not everyone agrees with this idea, but the reality is still: The progress in developing new production technologies has really slowed down. It requires more time and financial resources than before. If engineers do not seek to create atomic downtown semiconductors, sooner or later this industry will limit the limitations for physical laws.
And here is the game panel? The fact is to place the increasing number of semiconductor balls that have side effects – devices that require less current to turn on and off these semiconductors. For CPUs and computer GPUs, this is good, because the released resources may be allowed to increase performance or other capabilities. It is for this reason that the 2020 processor is extremely superior to the 2010 -based chip, consuming about the same amount of energy.
But the dashboard is formed as static systems that provide similar performance regardless of external factors. Therefore, developers know the characteristics and components to focus on optimizing games. Therefore, when improving chips for the dashboard, the only advantage is that the energy consumption decreases into the decreasing temperature. In addition, the manufacturer is capable of getting more chips from the same amount of raw material, theoretical, reducing their costs.
Consolidation and miniature
At the same time, it is impossible to say that in reducing energy consumption and price without benefit-control has been converted by the improvement of processes, especially at the 1990-2000 junction.
For example, you can use PlayStation 2 and PS2 Slim. Not all the optimization of the following is the result of the improved chips – she also removed the slot for the hard drive and the universal gate of IEEE 1394, and the source becomes outside. But the reduction and consolidation of the platform chips later made it easier and more effective. The late versions of Slim once again receive the power source built, while there is no additional size. Not to mention the fact that during this period, the price of the control panel has decreased significantly.
Xbox 360 from Microsoft is the same story. Although outside, the design of the device has not changed too much in the years of the life cycle, the thin version appeared in the middle of the generation has become a bit less. But from 2005 to 2010, the technical processes of the chips used in X360 have decreased. From 90 nanometers, they reached 80, then to 65 and finally, to 45 – Microsoft was able to place both CPUs and GPUs on a chip. And the price of the console becomes lower again.
In other words, the improvement of past chips requires a range of positive effects. Reduce energy supply, reduce plastic and metal consumption in the production of cases, reduce heat excretion and cooling system, simplify the motherboard design.
However, the slowdown at the speed of progress has been noticeable in the last generation of gaming devices, even when technological improvements and discounts in the same model. PS4 Slim and Xbox One S switched to a 16nm processor instead of the original 28nm, resulting in the cost of devices for $ 100. Even Nintendo Switch moves from 20nm to 16nm to transfer Lite.
Sony and Microsoft have changed a little iron in the PlayStation 5 and Xbox series after releasing the initial control panel, but due to the fact that it is more difficult to reduce the chip, the advantages of innovation become less noticeable. Moreover, this is related to computer CPU/GPU. In mid -2010, the new generation of GPUs from NVIDIA means better performance at lower prices; Now people have to pay more, in exchange, and receive improvements that are almost not noticeable. AMD had to support my old AM4 platform when circulating for many years, even after official replacement, because the AM5 socket is not cheap enough for the budget PC and the average price segment.
Of course, the price may decrease in the coming years thanks to the trade agreements and the cost of the latest production processes, but you should not hope for this.